Shady Characters to Love

Epimedium grandiflorium "Lilafee"

I bought my home because of the land surrounding it.  I love the tall trees and the feel of the woodland-like space.  But when I started planning the gardens, I panicked a little.  I had not a clue about shade gardening.

An old friend is currently starting a similar process and asked me if I had any favorite shade plants. Thinking others might have the same question, I thought I’d answer him here. I hope this helps him start a love affair with shady characters.

Butterfly Japanese maple.

Peter has been gardening as long as I have.  He has a great eye for design and light.  So the next few paragraphs might not help him much.  But I’m finding it hard to flatly recommend plants without yammering on about shade gardening in general first. I’m also not prepared to write a whole book on shade plants at this moment so I will mention just a few of my true loves.  And a caution to Peter; my recommendations are based in zone 6 experiences.

“ Once you hit zone 7, you’re in a whole new world,” said Roberta Bogash, landscape designer. greenworks design,“Some spring ephemerals, and some hellebores, that do well in Pennsylvania, won’t cut it in North Carolina.”

Roberta suggested Bonnie Lee Appleton’s New York/Mid Atlantic Gardener’s Book of Lists as an indispensable reference when choosing plants.  She said she still consults it, and finds the informational value akin to Michael Dirr’s books. For a second source perhaps look at North Carolina State’s plant factsheets.

Here are a few things I consider when shade gardening;

Know your light levels. Never push it.  If you know your spot is full shade, only plant full shade plants there.  I’ve had better luck planting sun plants in part sun than I have with tweaking light requirements for shade. But also consider light in wooded areas might be brighter than you think.

In shade plantings against a house, light can only enter at certain angles. Buildings completely block all light from one direction.  In wooded areas, as the sun shifts, the plants can get sun from various angles.  If you are unsure about the quantity of light, there are meters available.
If you have lots of invasive plants like multiflora rose or privit in your shade areas, consider taking those out.  Opening up the space will increase the light.

Hardy begonia is crush worthy shade plant.

Early spring is your best window for color in shady gardens.  Before trees fully leaf out, spring bulbs do fine in shaded areas.  I like narcissus because they stand up to the critters that come with wooded areas. Once the trees fully leaf out, it’s hard for understory plants to access enough sun to push good blooms.  For color, woodland spring ephemerals are also great bet.

Peter has many mature trees like I do.   With that comes the second big challenge with shade; its often dry. Tree roots can be fairly shallow at the surface and they will suck up all the water and leave other plants in the dust.  I have a couple of dry shade plant offerings.  (Yes, finally some plants suggestions.)  But I’m not starting with dry shade.  That’s too hard.  I’m starting with the sexy stuff.

Epimedium is my shade plant soul mate.  It’s beautiful and amusing. Immaturely, I love sharing epimedium’s common name, horny goat weed, with visitors who walk my gardens. It’s extract is supposed to support “sexual vitality.”  And since I am an anti-Martha, I find the fact that epimedium is also Martha Stewart’s favorite shade plant a humorous coincidence.

Tiarella cordifolia, foam flower

But I can’t live without epimedium.  I love the orchid-like blooms in the spring.  They are generous.  The foliage is charmingly shaped in either heart or ellipsis. It is perky all season and some varieties get added color in the fall.  It looks great in drifts at the front of a shade area. Several colors are available. I long for more.

Even more orchid-like and intricate, the later blooming Tricyrtis flava or toad lily is my late summer favorite.  Born on graceful arcs of attractive foliage, the tiny gem flowers draw you in to stop and lean in to fully experience the flower.  The foliage, at least for the varieties I’ve grown, is similar to another favorite, Solomon’s seal.  I like this planted densely with a little height above other plantings. I have some at a peak of a rocky garden leaning over a rock.  It’s spread and filled in nicely.

Tiarella cordifolia, foam flower, is another shade charmer.  The foliage is available in a ton of colors and there are nice native forms. Tiarella cordifolia foliage is a great way to keep your shade areas interesting all summer and into fall.  I’ve seen native forms that become a reddish purple and hold their color through December which is very pretty in contrast to snow.  I’ve found this does better in soil that is rich in organic matter and not completely dry.

Foliage color is key to shade gardens.  I’ve added lots of heuchera for that reason.  Not all varieties tolerate full shade and the leaf color won’t be as vibrant in heavy shade. Pulmonaria is another good shade plant, both the leaves and the spring flowers.  I’ve mixed different varieties to contrast different leaf colors.  I’ve divided them multiple times and they spread quickly.  They begin looking kinda iffy this time of year.  I’ll list a few others that I like at the end of the post.

Pulmonaria in early spring

For dry shade, euphorbia robbiae owns my heart.  It is a spurge that spreads nicely and spouts out these unusual discs of green flowers.  Way cool.  You’ll need to pay attention to the variety. Many euphorbias are full sun and like moist conditions.  I have the Robbiea underplanted with sweet william.  I’ve had good luck with bergenia and epimedium in dry shade.  More common, but dependable in dry shade is lamium.   Friends have had luck with varieties of heuchera in dry shade.  Again, I think you would need to pay attention to your varieties.

A shrub that is very rewarding for deep shade and works well visually in woodland setting is spicebush.  It has delicate yellow flowers in spring, attracts the spicebush swallowtail, treats you to yellow foliage in fall and finishes with red berries in winter.  I have Aucuba in part shade but friends have grown that in deep shade.

I would also caution against completely ruling out traditional shade garden plants.  I was a bit of a snob about hosta and ferns at first but have grown to appreciate them.  I have a 20 yard long fern drift about 5 feet deep at the back of one of my shade gardens. It has impact from a distance and it works for height and interest mid season. I love the curling leaves and watching it wave in the breeze.

Corydalis lutea with hosta

Hosta offers great variety in color and form and can help in balancing scale.  An enduring challenge for me in my shady areas has been mid range scale and height.  Shrubs work for tall accents.  But I’ve struggled to find plants in the 3 to 5 foot tall range.  I have a Hosta sum and substance that once it became established, works nicely behind my hellebores.  I’ve added Joe Pye weed and milkweed for the first time this year.  I’ll see how I like those.

What I thought would be a quick 400 word post handled in an hour turned into a 5 hour endeavor. A friend stop over to find me still in pajamas at 2pm because I got tied to my keyboard. While my passion for shade gardening kept me typing, clearly, it’s too large a topic for one post.  So much for my following my own restrictions against horribly long postings.

Sea oats can tolerate deep shade.

Other crushes for part-shade to shade;

-    Corydalis lutea
-    climbing hydrangea
-    creeping jenny
-    black mondo grass
-    clethra alnifolia
-    hellebores
-    sea oats (can tolerate deeper shade)
-    Japanese anenome
-    Redbud

Roberta Bogash, Landscape designer, Greenworks Design, contributed to this post.